Melody
by ShimoRyu
Summary: Mori Ranmaru is back in his own time and place. Everything he has been through feels like a simple momentary dream. However, he can't seem to get the thoughts of that girl with the golden harp out of his head. Post WO3.


First off yes this is a Cai Wenji and Ranmaru fanfic. I just think they're so cute together! And second off this takes place after the ending of Warriors Orochi 3. I have always viewed everyone as merely seeing the whole events of the game as a dream once they return to their worlds, and this my my take on one of the happenings. I may write more depending on how I feel about certain characters.

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Mori Ranmaru was oddly distracted at the war meeting that day. It had to take at least three slight warning glances to get him out of his daze. Focusing was normally something that came easily to the young warrior, especially if his lord demanded it, but because of those accursed dreams… Is that what they were? They felt so real, as if he'd been there. Sitting beneath the moon in a desolate world next to a brown haired girl dressed in dark blue. She played a melody that rang with hope and peace from the harp in her hands that contrasted their surroundings, yet it made him happy to hear. Ranmaru could still hear the tune in his head through the whole meeting, and that's what caused his unusual lack of focus. Luckily for Ranmaru, the meeting was quickly over, and he was able to run off to think.

Or so he thought.

"Are feeling all right today Ranmaru? It's not like you to lose concentration like that." Of course before he could leave Mitsuhide would stop him. There was no way he wouldn't know that something was up, but of course Ranmaru wasn't going to tell. "It's nothing Lord Mitsuhide." Ranmaru said with a bow as he quickly walked off without another word.

_That can't be nothing… _Thought Mitsuhide with a sigh. _I suppose if anyone can get him to tell though it's her._

After escaping Mitsuhide's possible questioning, Ranmaru had retreated to the gardens with a flute in his hand. He hadn't played in a long time and was horribly out of practice. However he was able to faintly recreate the soft melody that the girl next to him had played. A slightly out of tune version but slowly it was getting better as he continued to focus and play. Ranmaru had been coming here every day to practice the song. No one ever knew though because it seemed that with the current on-going war effort no one had time to relax in the gardens. In fact even Ranmaru barely had time. He came out here every time he got a spare moment simply to think or practice. However for once in his life, Mori Ranmaru had completely let his guard down, and didn't hear the soft footsteps coming towards him.

"That's a pretty song Ran!" A cheerful voice startled him back to the real world, as he looked up and saw his friend and Mitsuhide's daughter, Gracia, standing next to him. "How many times have I told you not to do that?" he asked with complete patience in his voice.

"Lots of times." She replied sitting down next to him. "Did you make up that song yourself?"

Ranmaru sighed a little. Gracia was his friend and he did care about her, but she had a habit of showing up when he most wanted to be alone. But it was imposible to get her to go away so it was smarter just to talk. "No, it's just something I heard somewhere."

"Where?" Asked Gracia. Ranmaru closed his eyes for a brief second, debating whether or not he should say anything, but then he realized that Gracia was the last person who would think he was crazy. So he told her everything. About the girl, about the melody, about the strange desolate world. Literally just everything that came to him in his dream-like thoughts. Then came the part he was not expecting. Gracia told him she had similar things. She dreamed about a guy who wore yellow colored robes who freed her from a magically sealed box, and someone who denied her efforts to be friends, though she tried anyway. She also said that her father was troubled by similar thoughts, and if Ranmaru asked Nobunaga, he'd probably say that he was as well.

Then the two heard Mitsuhide call Gracia's name and she quickly got up. "I hope you can figure things out Ran!" She said cheerfully, as she quickly ran over to her father.

Ranmaru got back to his thinking once more, and a new thought came into his head. This time he could hear the girl's voice for once. It was a gentle and kind one that happily announced that she had wrote a poem for him. He remembered excitedly asking if he could read it, and she simply told him that she would only tell him if he managed to live through these chaotic times. Then more memories came back, and more things came to him. Fighting alongside each other, telling one another stories, heading towards a near-dooomed final battle, the world deteriorating and then one final powerful memory. Their last words to each other.

Hers were, "I love you Mori Ranmaru," As she wrapped him in a quick goodbye hug.

And the reply from Ranmaru was, "I love you too, Cai Wenji."


End file.
